Tuning In: Jack Edwards' winning Bruins call gains notice

Jack Edwards' play-by-play call of Patrice Bergeron's overtime goal to beat Toronto in Game 7 Monday could end up as the most memorable of his career as a Bruins broadcaster.

Funny thing is practically no one heard it while Edwards said it. Bruins fans were too busy celebrating. Edwards has no problem with that.

“We want people to be jumping over their coffee tables,” Edwards said. “We don't want people to be academically breaking down the grammar of what I'm saying. We want them to be punching the lights out. That's the whole reason you watch hockey games, to get emotionally involved and to get excited. So I'm OK with that.”

Here's how Edwards called Bergeron's goal 6:05 into OT that enabled the Bruins to become the first NHL team to win a Game 7 after trailing by three goals in the third period: “Bergeron scores. Patrice Bergeron. With the point of the dagger at their throats, they rip it out of Toronto's hands and kill the beast. The Boston Bruins have won it after being three down in the third.”

NESN posted video and audio of Edwards' call on NESN.com on Tuesday. Other websites, including youtube.com, have since posted it as well. While Edwards calls the series-winning goal, he raises his right fist and thrusts it onto the palm of his left hand as if he were stabbing it. Andy Brickley, Edwards' sidekick, raises his arms in triumph while Edwards does his thing.

Edwards has no problem being theatrical. It's in his blood. His father, John, taught theater and his mother, Ruth, taught music, both at the University of New Hampshire. But he admitted even when he woke up the next morning, he still had a hard time believing what he had witnessed on the ice.

“It was such an amazing comeback,” Edwards said. “I think it was hard for anybody to be a witness to it either in person or on television and not be emotionally affected by it because it was so sudden and dramatic.”

Edwards didn't expect the Bruins to come back after they had fallen behind, 4-1, in the third.

“I'll tell you straight out, I thought they were done,” he said.

He wasn't the only one. Even after Nathan Horton's goal made it 4-2, Toronto was still in control until Milan Lucic and then Bergeron scored in the final 1:22 with Tuukka Rask pulled for an extra skater.

Between the third period and OT, Edwards did his best to avoid planning what he would say if the Bruins went on to defeat the Maple Leafs.

“I wanted to feel it and trust myself,” he said, “and there have been times that it hasn't come out right.”

Some viewers changed channels after the Bruins fell behind by 4-1, but not as many as you might think. NESN's rating dipped from a 17.3 between 9-9:15 p.m. early in the third period, but only slightly to a 16.8 between 9:15 and 9:30 p.m., roughly the time that Toronto took a 4-1 lead. Then the rating rebounded to a 19.4 from 9:30 to 9:45, then to a 20.2 from 9:45 to 10 and finally to a 23.3 from 10-10:14 before NESN switched to its postgame show. Each rating point is a percentage of the 2.4 million television households in the Boston market. NESN posted a 36 share from 10-10:14, meaning 36 percent of the households watching television were tuned in to NESN.

Game 7 drew an average 16.8 rating, the third highest rating for a Bruins game in the 30 years that NESN has broadcast the team, topped only by a Game 7 loss to Washington (19.6) last year and a Game 7 win over Montreal (17.7) in 2011.

NBC, not NESN, televised the Stanley Cup Finals when the Bruins won it in 2011, so Edwards didn't get to call the finish of that Game 7 victory. So he ranks his call of Game 7 against Toronto as his most memorable with the Bruins.

NBC, NBC Sports Network and CNBC will televise the remainder of the Stanley Cup playoffs, so Edwards and Brickley will be limited to pregame and postgame coverage on NESN Plus when the Bruins host the Rangers in Game 1 of the second round at 7:30 tonight at the Garden.

“I've come to peace with it,” Edwards said. “It used to drive me nuts, but at a certain point you realize that there are certain things you can't change and you have to ride it out.”

With injuries to Dennis Seidenberg and Andrew Ferrence leaving the Bruins defense short-handed and Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist coming off back-to-back shutouts against Washington, Edwards considers the Bruins “significant underdogs in this series” against New York.

“Taking nothing away from Tuukka Rask,” Edwards said, “but I think it's the consensus that when Henrik Lundqvist is on his game, he's the best goalie on the planet, period.

“That being said,” Edwards said, “what chance did we give the Bruins with 11 minutes to go? I keep coming back to those old song lyrics that I refer to so often, in the Stanley Cup playoffs, 'Be prepared to be surprised.' ”

Contact Bill Doyle at wdoyle@telegram.com Follow him on Twitter @BillDoyle15.